Oro Valley Marketplace loses Dick's Sporting Goods

ORO VALLEY, AZ (Tucson News Now) - The Dick's Sporting Goods inside the Oro Valley Marketplace closed its doors for the last time on Monday.

The company is opening a new store inside the Tucson Mall.

Now, a shopping center with more than a dozen empty storefronts will have to fill another empty space.

Deb Christenson lives in Saddlebrooke, but shops at the Oro Valley Marketplace. She said she was disappointed when she heard the news that Dick's Sporting Goods was closing.

"I would hate for anything to happen to this shopping center, unfortunately like Foothills Mall. Foothills mall is a ghost town and I never go there anymore," Christenson said.

Christenson said she hopes other stores stick around.

"People wonder you know, who's next? That's what the public I would think wonders. That's what I would wonder? OK now what store is going to close down next?"

It's tough, not only on the shoppers who rely on the stores, but for the town of Oro Valley too.

"The Oro Valley government is reliant upon sales tax to operate and a place like Dick's (Sporting Goods) collects sales tax and gives it to the government. So you've got one less direct source of revenue," said Dave Perry, with the Greater Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce.

J.J. Johnston, the director of community and economic development for the town told Tucson News Now that many of the big stores in the center will be sticking around for now, but he's working on an economic strategy to hopefully fill up some of the empty stores.

He'll come up with a recommendation for mayor and council in about a month.

Until then, some shoppers say they'll have their fingers crossed that they will soon have even more options to choose from.

"I'm hoping now maybe we could have something like a Trader Joe's or a Sprouts or something like that so it could appeal to the people that are up here," said Susan Glidewell, a shopper who lives in Catalina.

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